What Are Gross Motor Skills?

How do gross motor skills develop?

However, in order for gross motor skills to develop properly, the brain, spine, nerves and muscles need to be intact and undamaged. If damage has occurred through birth trauma, accident or illness, then progress of motor skills, as that of other skills, may be affected. If you suspect that your child has sustained some damage to her body, please consult your doctor right away.

A physically healthy body is no guarantee that
gross motor development will still be good!

There are many factors that can affect the development of gross motor skills:

• Playing computer games and watching tv has given our kids great exposure to all kinds of information that the previous generation did not have, but the cost is that physical motor skills (both gross motor and fine motor) may not have developed as they should have.


• Low muscle tone or high muscle tone can affect your child’s ability to control his body.


• Growing up in a protected environment can actually be hazardous to our health! We don’t let our kids play outside, walk to the park or cycle to friends anymore. We are trying to keep them safe, which is great, but their motor skills have been affected!


• Babies tend to spend a lot of time in car seats, walking rings and in front of the tv, all adaptations made necessary by the demands of modern life. But these things can have a detrimental impact on their motor development.


• In the West, a sedentary lifestyle, accompanied by too much rich food, means that adults are less likely to engage in physical games with their children. Kids then don’t have good role models, and prize other things more highly than physical activity and good health.


• Underlying difficulties with coordination, balance, motor planning, and concentration can all affect a child’s ability to take part in, and benefit from, gross motor activities.

But why are gross motor skills so important?

Here are a few of the important benefits of developing these skills:

• Long-lasting good health that comes from regular physical activity


• Increased confidence and improved self-esteem that comes from being able to successfully take part in games with other children


• Release of stress and frustration through physical activity


• Improved school skills

Are you convinced? Take a look at our gross motor activities page for links to some great activities to improve your child’s school skills!

If you don't find what you are looking for among the pages and topics currently on the site, please contact me! I will gladly try to help you to the best of my abilities. Please feel free to ask questions or suggest topics that you would like to see covered next!

Return from Gross Motor Skills to
Home Page of OT Mom Learning Activities

Receive free regular updates by signing up for my RSS feed - see the block under the Nav Bar. No email address needed!

New! Comments